Senior DevOps Engineer at Sanger Institute (Hinxton, UK)

Join the Wellcome Sanger Parasite and Microbes Surveillance Operations team as a Senior DevOps Engineer working closely with other IT disciplines and organisation teams to accelerate the technical delivery of new digital products as they relate to the scientific programmes that Surveillance Operations supports through automation and adoption of first class infrastructure technologies. If you are interested in sharing your expertise and technical skill within a team that is actively contributing towards solving real global challenges, please apply directly.

About Us:

The Surveillance Operations team is part of a scientific network that connects researchers, clinicians, and global health leaders across the globe with cutting-edge DNA sequencing technologies and genomic research. Through a number of multi-centre projects, we provide a framework for generating, integrating and sharing genetic and genomic data, and for investigating key questions about COVID-19, malaria biology and epidemiology. These frameworks and proof of concept software developments are also the base for supporting genomic surveillance operations across various contexts going into the future.

As part of the MalariaGEN initiative delivering its current commitment under a grant provided by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Business Systems Team within Surveillance Operations are building a solution to support the tracking and management of malaria studies and their associated samples. This solution allows global partners to register studies, send Sanger samples for DNA sequencing, along with their associated metadata, and one which enables the tracking and management of these samples through a complex process at the institute with the results being data released to partners and the public.

In addition to this, the Business Systems team have also delivered a similar solution for the tracking of COVID-19 samples, which are currently being sent to the institute for DNA sequencing. The Business Systems team within Surveillance Operations continues to focus on the continuous improvement and development of these software applications going forward as well as producing other proof of concept software products in line with the Surveillance Operations strategy. It’s an exciting time to join the team and we are looking for hands-on, inspirational leaders to join our team.

About the Role:

As Senior DevOps Engineer, you will be expected to lead and promote the ongoing adoption of Ops automation best practices, developing ideas for new features and reinforcing reliability by monitoring industry developments and trends.

You will assume full line management responsibility for the DevOps Engineers and Systems Administrators within the Business Systems team, including recruitment, performance and ongoing development of these team members. You will plan out the technical infrastructure aspects of projects and provide input into product and project management decisions. You will be agile in your approach, and will apply agile principles to the definition of the infrastructure and security related user stories, product features, and sprint activities.

Your team will support multiple scrum teams as they develop complex digital solutions for the CoTrack (CoVID), Conflux (MalariaGEN) application suites and any associated new products. You will work with the Software Development teams to ensure versions of code, operating systems and firmware (if required) are up to date and compatible, with a clear maintenance roadmap in place.

Similarly, you will ensure there is sufficient capacity within the cloud and on-premise infrastructure to support the various digital products and find innovative ways to report on this. You will work with the team to build and develop performant and maintainable infrastructure and tools to meet the current and future needs of Surveillance operations to facilitate the building of this community. You will collaborate closely with the security and access management functions of the Business Systems team as well as Wellcome Sanger CoreIT to ensure that systems are safe and secure against cybersecurity threats. You will also ensure systems are well managed in terms of their service availability, with backup/recovery processes in place, and upgrades scheduled and well-executed.

About You:

You have the ability to quickly understand technical and process challenges and break down complex problems into actionable steps. You are adaptable and agile in your approach, comfortable to work in a frequently changing environment with the capability to interpret management information to amend plans. You are able to prioritise, manage workload, and deliver agreed activities consistently on time.

You like working with and collaborating with others, building up relationships with internal and external stakeholders at all levels. You take seriously your role in promoting a culture of diversity, inclusivity, creativity and positivity, driving forward change where necessary. You are a servant-leader at heart with a flexible, service-oriented attitude. You have excellent written and spoken communication with the ability to explain technical challenges to many types of partners and stakeholders.

You have the ability to work independently whilst prioritising, managing your own workload, and delivering agreed activities consistently on time. You are hands-on and take all team members on the journey ensuring that the team goals are clear and that systems are supported and well-maintained.

You will be required to work a hybrid model with a mix of working on site and remote - this can be discussed further at the interview stage.

Essential Skills

Technical skills:

• Experience of DevOps and Agile principles


• Professional knowledge of popular ‘infrastructure as code’ technologies e.g. Terraform, Packer, Nomad, Kubernetes


• Extensive Linux (Ubuntu) system administration skills


• Extensive experience of Cloud based technologies and management (Open Stack, AWS, Google)


• Knowledge and experience with modern software development practices, including version control, continuous integration and workflow management tools such as Jira, Gitlab, etc.


• Experience of operational cybersecurity principles and associated solutions


• Familiarity with SQL and databases


• Experience of Gitlab CI/CD, Gitlab Runner configuration and containerization (e.g. Docker, Singularity)


• Management and configuration of Apache Web Server as well as Tomcat Application Server

Competencies and Behaviours:

• Ability to quickly understand technical and process challenges and breakdown


• Complex problems into actionable steps


• Ability to work in a frequently changing environment with the capability to interpret management information to amend plans


• Ability to prioritise, manage workload, and deliver agreed activities consistently on time


• Ability to build collaborative working relationships with internal and external stakeholders at all levels


• Promote and role-model a culture of diversity, inclusivity, creativity and positivity, driving forward change where necessary.


• Experience of managing a diverse range of people


• A flexible and service-oriented attitude

Ideal Skills

Technical skills:

• Management of Drupal-based websites


• Familiarity with data storage and caching technologies


• OpenLDAP Administration skills


• Some Python development experience would be beneficial


• Basic understanding of network protocols, IPv4 addressing and subnetting, routing etc


• Kubernetes administration skills with Helm experience


• Familiarity with monitoring tools such as Zabbix and ELK stack